These Reunited Days
by karyra
Summary: Xion, Lea, and Roxas finally reunited. It's been a long time since they could just touch each other, so naturally a group hug was in order. However, everyone is still too afraid to let go.
They'd made her feel welcome.

"No matter how far you run, I'll always bring you back!"

She wasn't real... her emotions were fake. She was a fake.

"Who will... who will I have ice cream with?"

She gave away all that she had to try and fix what she was. It had been a promise to keep to Sora, because she was an ugly machine. Designed to destroy her first friend.

'No I'. Her real name.

'Lea' and 'Sora' were their true names. They weren't fakes. They weren't puppets. They had hopes and goals and... as she learned when she had been with Sora, they had the one thing she she could never have.

Hearts.

Then why was she crying? Why was she being hugged so tightly by them? Her fingers digging into their clothes to try and memorize the feeling. Holding tightly as though they both would vanish at a moment's notice, or she would. She wanted to stay with every fiber of her being. She held them so tightly her hands hurt, but she kept holding on.

Xion cried. Lea cried. Roxas cried.

Lea held his two friends close, knowing that he'd once accepted them both as gone forever. That the reason he defied the organization was more suicide than he wanting Roxas back. Then Lea came back.

Lea came back alone. He didn't even remember Xion at all, but he knew that he was missing more than just Roxas. Lea had watched his world fall apart around him and he cared so deeply about it. He cared, and in his dying moments, he realized -no, he hoped- that he'd really been given his heart back after all.

So he held the two short ones close, his gangly arms awkwardly trying to hold them both close and trying not to lose them again. It wasn't unlike a kid who hadn't seen his friends in a year and now wouldn't let go again, selfishly trying to hold them close to him forever.

"I told you I'd always bring you back.." He quipped, trying not to cry.

Lea cried anyway.

Roxas held his friends for what felt like the first time. After having his memories wiped of each of them two separate times, it felt like he hadn't known these people at all. Still, as the group hug lasted longer, he held them closer and closer.

He knew this feeling. It was nothing more than belonging, and that he belonged into this group. All the hurt, the pain he'd suffered, it had been from them. He should be bitter and angry, he should reject this hug.

But Xion gave up everything for him to live, and Lea was the sole survivor for so long, it wasn't fair to say that Roxas had suffered alone in all of this. He clung to them like they were pieces of driftwood in the ocean, because he feared that he'd disappear into that angry person again. The power of anger was easy to find and to use, but he also remembered that he'd raised his keyblade to both of them.

And as a result he never saw them again.

It was a silent moment after Axel's quip. So much had happened. Too much had happened, really.

It was Xion who broke the silence, "I could use ice cream right about now."

"What do you think, watermelon?" Lea asked, lifting his head, but not letting go. The joke passed between all of them, silently appreciated.

"If you think we're tired of sea-salt, then you're mistaken, Axel." Roxas replied.

"Roxas... it's Lea." Xion said, turning to look at Roxas, but not letting go.

Roxas looked confused, trying to figure out if he'd lost his memories again.

"And how do you know that?" Lea asked, a smile dancing on his lips.

"Uhm, I looked at Sora's memories..." she said, a little sheepish about her snooping. If she hadn't gone looking before, then...

Axel moved his hand to rub her head. "Tch, you keep finding things out without permission. At least this time it won't get me in trouble with an evil dictator who wants my heart."

"What?" Roxas said, breaking away from the group hug in shock. "Xemnas?" Roxas was disappointed he'd been out of loop for so long.

"Xemnas." Lea confirmed. "Although, he was kind of a terrible boss, leaving Saix to delegate tasks."

"Saix was an ass."

The two boys turned to look at Xion, who was usually so polite and soft spoken. Lea laughed and clapped her on the back, she staggered a bit at the sudden impact. She looked startled, and stared up at Axel in fear.

"After we get you dressed, Xion, let's go to Twilight Town and eat ice cream and hang out. You know, like before?" Roxas offered.

"Hey, I say that since she's made us all worry so much, she buys the ice cream this time. I'm almost broke, you know?"

Lea even turned out his pockets to show them his grand total of five munny that he'd scrounged up around the various worlds.

"Deal," Xion said.

 **A/N:**

 **A story swap between me and a friend on Tumblr. They requested the Sea-salt trio. So I figured that the group would just have a giant group hug since they haven't been together in a long, long time. Also I love group hugs.**


End file.
